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If there were a Nobel Prize for Hypocrisy, the competition would be fierce, but the UN Commission on Human Rights would have to be a leading contender. It’s always a treat to read the comments of Cuba, North Korea, Iran, Russia and China. And I especially enjoyed the Syrian representative’s complaint about how the “unilateral” sanctions are damaging human rights in his country. This, from a despotic regime that “protected” the right of its citizens in Hama in 1982 by surrounding the village with tanks and artillery and obliterating it, along with about 10,000 of its inhabitants. This is the type of regard for human rights that the SS or NKVD would have shown. Way to go, UN!

“Iran remained concerned over human rights violations in Ireland, particularly over incidents of racism, xenophobia and discrimination against Muslims. Ireland should take measures to combat and tackle racial discrimination, and take firm action against perpetrators of those acts. Ireland should support its Muslim citizens in enabling them to practice their religion.”

This certainly smacks of grandstanding on the silly stage that UN provides all its “member states” – including the numerous tyrannical regimes among them. At the same time, Iran arguably is defending/advancing their interests via assertively defending practitioners of their state religion who reside in Ireland.

Perhaps the more liberal Western nations might benefit from more assertive defense of their own interests. Or – perhaps – the more liberal Western nations have concluded that self-defense is improper or even unseemly behavior. As Robert Frost is said to have observed, “liberals are too broad-minded to take their own side in a quarrel .”

It may be amusing to consider this as simply another instance of Iranian hypocrisy. But perhaps this episode provides more than mere amusement.

As Juvenal observed, “It is difficult not to write satire” (i.e., the NAACP bringing its concerns over voter ID laws to a group whose member states, inter alia, still keep slaves, bar women from voting,*and have a leader who received 100% of the vote).

*Although Saudi Arabia, now set to enfranchise its lady population, might be intrigued by driver’s license requirement….